Posted by Mike S of team #21, Boeing NASA-KSC “ComBBAT”, from Titusville HS, Astronaut HS sponsored by Boeing.
Posted on 3/4/99 4:41 PM MST
Under a beautiful bright sunny day with temperatures in the
low 70’s practice day is complete. There are 27 teams
competing and the competition looks strong. However a
number of teams (approximately 7) were not running or
barely running by the close of practice. We only saw a
small number of teams, approximately 5 or so actually climb
on the puck. However the upper end of the competition
looks strong. Two Baxter teams are here, the Bomb Squad
and a team from Puerto Rico. Of course the Baxter
machine was hands down the most reliable with very little
work going on the pits. The BSM machine (who heroically
came by bus all the way from Wisconsin) also looks very
strong. They climb the puck easily with a rotating belt
mechanism. They have a very sturdy, ladder like
telescoping boom that works well.
As for us, the ComBBAT machine, “Tippy” performed well
most of the day with a few bumps and bruises. Only a few
teams can reliably do it all: climb on or hang from the puck,
raise floppies, and pickup floppies. The ComBBAT machine
along with both Baxter teams, BSM and the Pratt &
Whittney SPAM machine exhibited all these functions.
Note there may have been a few more that I may have
missed. The NASA Space Coast Team was not ready until
late in the day but is very quick with a 4-wheel drive system
articulated for climbing on both ends!
A few notes for pit crews. If you blow a transorb (and they
fail both open and closed) you will blow the 60 amp fuse
and nothing else if you’ve wired by the book. This could
cause a short and blow out all the transorbs. Lesson: bring
transorbs and if a 60 amp fuse blows check them all! If you
are using van door motors as a drive system (1 team was)
they get hot. Give them air and don’t over practice.
Well that’s it from the backyard of America’s Launch Pad!
More tomorrow, hopefully scores if they are posted.
Mike S.
Boeing NASA KSC “ComBBAT”
Team 21
Posted by Mike King, Other on team #88, TJ², from Bridgewater Raynham and Johnson & Johnson Professional.
Posted on 3/4/99 7:50 PM MST
In Reply to: 1999 KSC Regional Status Report #1 posted by Mike S on 3/4/99 4:41 PM MST:
:Lesson: If you
: are using van door motors as a drive system (1 team was)
: they get hot. Give them air and don’t over practice.
DateLine 1996. Our team (TJ²) was using the seat motors for it’s drive system. Yes i’m completely serious, we used them to drive our wheels. You think that’s bad, ask Moe or Terry about the “speed controller” we made.
But anyway, those seat motors get really hot when you strain them like that, and we found that by putting an Icepack (Johnson&Johnson brand of course) over the motors a few minutes before the match would allow them to run it bit longer before the heat sensor tripped. Another thing we found, but didn’t use cause we couldn’t find a can of it, was compressed refrigant. We saw a few teams spraying it onto the motors, and Volia, instant frostie.
Don’t know the name of it, but I saw some at Radio Shack the other day.
Good luck
Mike
Ps. Someone mentioned that this year was a sea of sissor lifts. We had a Sissor lift way back in 1996. There are some much better pictures on our website. None of 1999 yet
Posted by Neel Parikh, Student on team #188, Woburn Robotics, from Woburn Collegiate.
Posted on 3/5/99 10:09 AM MST
In Reply to: Motors and Heat posted by Mike King on 3/4/99 7:50 PM MST:
:
: But anyway, those seat motors get really hot when you strain them
:like that, and we found that by putting an Icepack (Johnson&Johnson
:brand of course) over the motors a few minutes before the match would
:allow them to run it bit longer before the heat sensor tripped.
:Another thing we found, but didn’t use cause we couldn’t find a
:can of it, was compressed refrigant. We saw a few teams spraying
:it onto the motors, and Volia, instant frostie.
:
:Don’t know the name of it, but I saw some at Radio Shack the other day.
Last year we used “Freeze-it” on our drill motors. It seemed to work well
but we could never find that can when we needed it. It should be available
at almost any electronics store. It’s used to cool IC’s, etc . . as far
as i know.
Hope that helps.
Neel
Woburn Robotics, Scarborough, Ontario
Team #188
Posted by Joe Johnson, Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 3/5/99 7:09 PM MST
In Reply to: Re: Motors and Heat posted by Neel Parikh on 3/5/99 10:09 AM MST:
We bought a case of the curcuit board cleaner (neat little method to remove that dust) from Newark last year.
It is not cheap as I recall (about $10 a can seems to ring a bell).
There are other sources as well.
If there is an interest, I can find the Newark Part Number. (I couldn’t find it using Newark’s search engine but you may have better luck)
Joe J.